The Concrete Hearts of Secret Weapons
by JunAegileus777
Summary: For Rouge, the job isn't so bad: Undercover missions are almost always complete with suspense, espionage, and...a black hedgehog? The supposed "Ultimate Weapon" silently bewitches Rouge to no end and, unfortunately, to the point of no return. Now, her assignment is to protect the Ultimate's one-tracked, cybernetic mind from hearing the wrong words: "Kill them all." :Relaunch!:


**Time:** 20.07.2029, 22:49

**Location:** Japan, Niihama-shi (New Port City), Kubohama Maximum-Security Prison

**File 262-304:** Due to a government file leak, the vigilante-style 9th Division has discovered that a new weapon has been developed. But said weapon has already been apprehended and detained in Kubohama Maximum-Security Prison by the Japanese branch of the GUN (Guardian Units of the Nation). No type of description or details have been released to any news media networks, as of yet.

**Directive: **Confiscate the subject and determine whether or not it is a major threat.  
**Goal Perimeter: **T-minus 1h 11m…

**The Concrete Hearts of Secret Weapons**

Section One: Red Light Rescue

Rouge descended into an open hallway and landed safely. She swiftly clung to a wall and observed her environment. She donned a strapless white leotard with an accenting black patent-leather sleeveless bolero and thigh-high boots. Various belts coursed around her curves: two utility belts crisscrossed her hips, securing twin semiautomatics; another leather belt was wrapped around her midriff. Her long black gloves matched her boots as they glistened under the dim artificial light.

"Okay, I'm in, Tails," she reported through her cyberbrain's communication link, still looking around for guards.

"Great," replied the young twin-tailed fox. "I'll guide you, using the architectonic schematics of the prison. Let me find you first…" Tails rapidly pecked at his laptop's keyboard. "Okay, if you look over your left shoulder, you should see a door. Do you?"

"Yes, I do," Rouge remarked softly. She sashayed, still against the wall, over to the door. After double-checking the hallway, she placed a finger on her chin.

"Now, input the forty-eight-digit security code I am about to recite."

Tails uncovered a place on the back of his neck and pulled out a cord, synchronizing his cyberbrain with the prison database and linking it with his memory bank. He was wearing a pair of black denim overalls and a white-and-red jacket, his traditional sneakers, and lots of other little gadgets. His sky-blue eyes rapidly scanned over the information streaming through the link, recording as he went along.

The pupils of Tails' eyes were fixating on the code. "I'm hacking into the prison's database right now. The code is…"

The password flowed with ease.

"Hmm?" Tails blinked, thinking, 'The passkey is Shadow?' Tails furrowed his brows a little. "This seems a bit too deliberate to me. Keep watch, Major."

"Close," Rouge tagged on to the end of the boy's remark while she inputted the "borrowed" password into the module. Its indicator light flashed from stable red to pending yellow, before glowing green and unlocking the gate. Beyond was a cylindrical space, with monitors and other types of machinery all around.

Rouge looked around for a bit, before deciding whether or not to step inside. "Wait," she began. "This is too easy, Tails. What's up? Infrared traps?"

"Most likely," he remarked, making a gesture. "But no worries; I've disabled them for you, so you can proceed."

"Thanks, Tails." She furrowed her brows. 'It's almost like someone wanted me to find this place…and that security code was easy binary,' Rouge thought as she stepped inside. 'Tails was right. This all seems too deliberate…'

Then, the light hazy glow in the very center of the room caught her attention.

"Hey, Major?" Sonic spoke into his own communication link. "What do you see?"

Sonic had crept over and sat down next to Tails. He donned a red-and-white jacket, inverse to Tails', and standard blue jeans. Underneath his jacket was a white tee with glistening electric blue graphics on the front. He had less tech-gear on him than Tails did, but he was armed with his trusty semiautomatic machine gun instead.

Rouge looked over at the white haze again. She relayed, "I honestly have no idea."

Sonic and Tails looked at each other and blinked. Sonic shrugged, while Tails relayed back, "Hey, Major, could you give me a visual? I might know what it is."

Rouge was doing so, saying, "It must take a _real _genius to figure this one out, huh?" She snickered, hearing Tails moan bashfully, but somewhat irked. "Aw, chill, kid. I'm just teasing you. Here."

Another screen appeared on Tails' laptop, showing him what Rouge was seeing. Tails and Sonic crowded around the screen and tried to peer through the white haze, seeing if they could make out the dark shape inside the capsule.

"Can you sharpen the resolution, Major?" Tails asked, squinting his eyes a little more. "The visual feed you're giving us is kind of fuzzy."

"I'll try," she replied to the fox boy.

She proceeded to squint into the capsule, trying to see through the heavy, white haze. She could finally recognize a shape and went on to look it over. She blinked once again, and light-green beams began flashing horizontally and vertically in her eyes at the dark figure carefully.

"Analyzing…" she reported as the beams scanning over her eyes then created a grid.

Tails and Sonic could also see what was going on. They looked at each other again before looking back at the laptop monitor.

"The Subject is…an anthropomorphic hedgehog," Rouge reported to them.

"You say it's a hedgehog? Like me?" Sonic relayed the question into his communication link, a bit excitedly. He ringed an arm around the little fox's neck, who cried out playfully, and rubbed a finger under his nose, snickering. "What gender?"

"Male," Rouge responded, and then continued, as she peeked closer into the cylindrical pod through the fogged glass. "Black and crimson, cranial spines curve sharply upward, white tuft of fur on chest…" She stepped around to another nearby security module, the green grid in her eyes—an analyzing program—disappearing. She glared down at it, sighing in her mind, 'Ugh, another one?'

"Major, there seems to be a different security code for this one," Tails spoke to her. He went on to type something into his laptop. "It's binary as well, but this one's a little shorter."

Rouge typed it in, numeral by numeral, as Tails relayed it to her. Translating the code in her head, she blinked, furrowing her brows. 'Who is Maria?' She looked down from the module. "Got it," she replied. She watched as the module process the password and waited. It continuously flickered an approving green; Rouge lifted a puzzled eyebrow.

But immediately following was a harsh beeping sound that reverberated from the corridors and into the room. Suddenly, every light in the prison was signaling red.

'Damn!' Rouge thought critically. 'Wasn't that the password?'

Tails yelped a little, not expecting the alarms to go off. "Oh no! That password must've been a dummy, to initiate the prison's defense protocols!"

Rouge flashed a fang. "But I thought you knocked out all the security devices, Tails!"

"I thought I did too!" Tails cried. He frantically pecked at his laptop's keyboard, inputting all kinds of different commands. "I can't shut it off! And there are prison guards heading your way too! Get out of there, Major!"

"I'm on it!"

Rouge went to dart the other way, but something stopped her. She looked back to see the haze gusting at her and the glass capsule splitting apart. She stood there and watched for a few moments.

"Major! Major, what are you doing? Get out of there, now!" Tails' voice ebbed out of Rouge's consciousness, with her focus scrambled by the explosion that filled her senses and rattled her body.

She was slammed into the wall by the ferocious impact.

...=9_D=...

The signal was cut off: Tails and Sonic had lost all contact with Rouge, and that worried them. Tails was checking the status of his and Sonic's connection with Rouge.

"Major! Major, can you hear me?" Tails cried out to her, hoping she would answer him. "Hah! I've lost all contact with her—visual, audio, and vital!"

"Then we've gotta go down there," Sonic advised quickly. "We'll use the blueprint of the prison to find our way around!"

"Okay!" Tails typed away at his keyboard hastily, employing a triangulation navigator to maneuver around the prison. "I've got a monitored lock on her location…!"

"Good!" Sonic cocked his machine gun. "Now, follow me!"

...=9_D=...

"…Attention, 3rd Division Kubohama SWAT Brigade: There's been a security breach in Sector 23-M! Prepare for Protocol 268-KOS! Kill all intruders on sight! Shut down the prisoner! Repeat: _Shut down_ the prisoner!"

Rouge rested badly in the dent she had made. "Ah…! 'Shut down' the prisoner…?" She flinched from the pain in her back. "Ow!" She growled. "What the…hell was—!" She gasped sharply.

The male hedgehog had awakened and was now standing across from her. His eyes were emitting a wrathful crimson energy that seared itself into Rouge's cyber-neural memory bank.

Rapid footsteps could be picked up and were getting closer.

Rouge seemed captivated by the male hedgehog: He was built yet slim, and somewhat taller than she thought. He looked so realistic that she could have mistaken him for an ordinary person; but why had he been locked away in that pod? And why was security so desperate to lock him back up?

The prison guards suddenly stormed inside of the room, clad in highly durable gear and armed with heavy-duty weaponry and forming a barricade in front of the hedgehog.

'Heavy arms? Already?' Rouge heeded mindfully. 'Then is he the one we're…?' Seeing that they were somehow ignoring her and aiming their weapons at the male hedgehog, she panicked. 'No, wait! Don't shoot!'

The male hedgehog's eyes refocused on his new targets: They had all situated themselves into an offensive grouping, armed and ready. His brows lowered.

'INITIATING DANGER SCAN… QUANTITATIVE ATTRIBUTES: SUBSTANTIAL AT 20 FOCI. QUALITATIVE ATTRIBUTES: SUFFICIENT, AT 63% THREAT RATIO… FORMATTING COMBAT PROTOCOLS.'

He menacingly stepped toward the barricade of prison guards. His palms began to glow a furious red, auras of energy forming around his hands. The barrage of gunfire neither fazed him nor penetrated him: It was only deflected by a crimson shield that had rapidly coated the hedgehog's entire body. He clenched his fists. The energy flowing over his body shined brightly.

"COMBAT PROTOCOL INITIATED."

The energy brightened before bursting out towards the barricade, destroying it—the twenty guards—instantly.

The haze had cleared; underneath him was a crater, a trace of his attack. The guards lay in crumpled heaps and disfigured positions, all of them dead. The male hedgehog instantly spotted Rouge and began to step toward her ever ominously.

Rouge uncovered her eyes and saw that the hedgehog was heading straight for her. She shifted nervously as the strangely powerful hedgehog looked her over. She hesitated, unable to move and unable to speak.

The male hedgehog was now standing over her, glaring down at her with his burning hypnotic eyes.

"P-Please don't hurt me." Rouge pressed herself deeper into the dent. She then felt another pain shooting up and down her spinal column; she yelped from the pain. She sharply looked back up at him, only to see him looking her over.

"INITIATING VITAL SYSTEMS SCAN: CYBER-NEURAL FUNCTION, SUFFICIENT AT 99.9% WITH MINOR DAMAGE. CIRCULATORY SECTOR, FUNCTIONING AT 132 BPM. RESPIRATORY SECTOR, FUNCTIONING. THERMAL INDICATIONS READ NORMAL AT 80.8° CELSIUS. SCANNING SENSORY SECTORS…" He knelt down next to her quietly to further his examination. "VISUAL INPUT, ACTIVE. CYBER-DERMAL RECEPTORS, RESPONSIVE WITH INJURY-INDUCED HYPERESTHESIA. AUDITORY INPUT…" He paused to listen for a bit.

...=9_D=...

Tails was growing more and more anxious as well as a little impatient. He and Sonic were racing down a poorly-lit corridor, heading toward Rouge's location. The fluorescent lights hanging above their heads rattled and flickered: Signs of dangerous activity.

"Major! Major, come in! We heard another explosion and we're on our way right now! Please answer, Major!" Tails could only yell into his cyber-neural communication link. He paused for a moment, waiting for a response.

Until he picked up a crackling sound.

Tails skidded to a stop. "Major Rouge?"

Sonic stopped in his tracks and looked back at Tails. Running back toward the boy, he warned, "Come on, Tails! We need to see if she's all right!"

"Hold on," Tails told him, "I think I heard something…"

* * *

Rouge seemed a little frightened by the whole situation: First, she releases this strange hedgehog, then he destroys everything, and now, amidst all the fire and destruction he's caused, he was staring coldly at her.

"AUDITORY INPUT, ACTIVE."

Rouge blinked a little before feeling more pain shoot along her spinal column. "Ah! Ow!"

"Major? Major, are you there?" Tails' voice emanated from within her cyberbrain.

Both Rouge and the male hedgehog heard it; the male hedgehog frowned, only for his brows to crease slightly deeper.

* * *

Tails could hear Rouge's sharp cry on the other end. His ears perked up, and he became anxious again.

"Major! Major, are you all right? Can you hear me?"

Sonic stood impatiently, glancing around for any foes that could be spying on them. He hoped for no ambushes; he was really worried about Rouge and only wanted to reach his superior as quickly as possible.

* * *

The male hedgehog watched Rouge as she caressed her head. His irises began to gleam bright crimson again.

"TRANSMITTING ELECTROMAGNETIC FREQUENCY NOISE TO ALL COMMUNICATIONS EQUIPMENT…"

"Wait." That caught Rouge's attention. "You're gonna do what, now?"

* * *

Tails and Sonic were startled by the abrupt screech from their cyber-neural radio links. They both immediately disconnected them. Sonic growled.

"Our signal…! It's been cut off!" Tails panicked a little. "Something must have happened!"

"Come on! Let's go!" Sonic signaled Tails to follow him.

Sonic ran on ahead, with Tails in close pursuit.

* * *

Upon hearing the short-circuiting of the security cameras hidden all around them, the male hedgehog got to his feet, with Rouge into his arms.

"Hey! Hold on, just a—!" Rouge was objecting to the chivalrous act. "I can walk on my own, y'know! Put me down, you…! Hey! I said hey!"

As she ranted and squirmed, the male hedgehog glanced over at the chamber's center where he had been held captive for so long, the capsule now shattered and sparking; he blinked. Then he glanced back at the exit. His brows remained furrowed as he moved towards it, with Rouge still wiggling in his arms.

* * *

Tails and Sonic crept through the corridor quietly, despite the noisy alarms blaring their clarion calls. Tails saw Sonic armed with his machine gun, holding it taut. The corridor seemed abandoned, for there weren't any security guards anywhere.

"There's no one here," Tails stated in relief, looking around. He did feel an eerie quiver in the pit of his stomach, however. 'Weird…'

Sonic did the same. "There'd better be no one here…!"

They continued through the hallway until they found a corner to turn, it leading in only one direction. Tails and Sonic peeked into the hallway and found no security of any type guarding the corridor. They looked to each other and blinked.

...=9_D=...

Rouge was still in a huff, but she allowed the male hedgehog to carry her out of the burning room. Despite the fire quickly consuming the machinery and the lifeless guards inside, the male hedgehog calmly walked out of the room and headed up the corridor. Rouge rested there in his strong arms and waited for her comrades to find her.

She huffed softly.

The male hedgehog heard this and instantly looked down at her. His eyes seemed more relaxed and present with the current situation. They sparkled curiously despite the heavy glower on his face.

"Major Rouge!" cried two male voices.

The hedgehog carrying Rouge instantly looked up; the cries caught Rouge's attention, too. He stopped in his tracks and waited there.

Rouge looked up at him questioningly, but kept silent. She suddenly spotted his eyes darting down at her. She immediately looked away, blushing a bit.

"Major!" Sonic called. Then, he noticed the strange hedgehog carrying her. He grimaced. 'Who the hell…?'

"A GUN battalion is on its way! It'll be here soon, so we have to get out of here! Let's rendezvous with the others! This way!" Tails pointed in the direction from where they came.

"All right," Rouge consented. "Lead the way, you guys."

...=9_D=...

Back at 9th Division Headquarters, Chief Ivo Robotnik sat in his swivel chair, emotions undetectable behind his dark glasses, as he stared out the large windowpanes of his office. The clouds in the sky were gray, lighter than the bespangled night, and partially covering the atmosphere above the port city of Niihama-shi. The view was beautiful from up there, sixty-six stories up.

The building itself was tall, but it only acted as a façade for the real 9th Division. The slender skyscraper only concealed the faction, its false face serving as a "multi-prefectural detective agency."

Chief Robotnik turned around in his chair and faced his military agents.

Tails noticed this and looked up to see him; Sonic stood behind Tails, hands in his jacket pockets and eyes focused on his boss.

The others had joined them: Knuckles stood at the back of the room, arms folded and eyes shut; along with him, but a short distance away, was Espio, waiting for the Chief to address them all; Vector, the brawniest of the Division, guarded the door, making sure no one intruded; Amy Rose and Silver sat on either side of Tails there on the small sofa. They looked at each other wonderingly and refocused their glances back toward their boss.

"Was there a specific reason why you called us all here, Chief?" Tails asked.

"Yes," replied the Chief finally. "It pertains to the mission…to him."

Chief Robotnik pressed a button before he stood from his seat. The windows behind him darkened in tint and a screen descended from the ceiling, as well as a projector, with the room's lights dimming. Chief Robotnik stepped around his desk and clicked the remote control to the projector.

The first image said "Project Shadow—Case File No. 262-295" with a yellow-and-red symbol representing it.

"This is Project Shadow, everyone," Chief Robotnik introduced to them. "Do note the images you are about to see."

He clicked the remote control again: Being shown was a photograph of an aged man in the center of a small grouping, sitting on a short stool. Around him were his apparent colleagues. The older man seemed to have a pleasant disposition.

"Here," Chief Robotnik began, "we have the best biotechnologists ever in the world. In the center of this grouping is the one and only Professor Gerald Robotnik…my grandfather."

"_He's_ your grandfather?" Tails exclaimed the question.

"Yes, Miles, indeed. And he was the one who mapped out and orchestrated Project Shadow…but that was fifty years ago, my friends, and he's long since passed."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Amy apologized.

"No need to be, my dear Amy." He sighed. "It was all one big mishap, really…well, according to what these files have told me."

He clicked the remote again.

The next projection showed Professor Gerald with a much younger, blonde little girl standing in front of him, with his hands on her shoulders. She looked very happy, for there was a big, white teddy bear in her arms. There was a pretty, beaming smile spread across her delightful little face.

"Here, you can see my grandfather with my younger cousin, Maria Robotnik. She was present for a previous project that my grandfather was conducting, for the research and development for an AIDS vaccine. For you see, Maria was born with AIDS, but died before the vaccine could be finished."

'May her soul remain at peace,' Silver prayed for the girl, lowering his eyes.

"Thus, Grandfather grieved for a while, but soon went back to his research. But instead of working on a cure for AIDS, he went into biogenetics and studied anthropomorphism. He wanted to create something—or someone, rather—who would be of great use to mankind. He went straight to one of his best assistants and asked them to interpret his notes and give this person a face. It was soon sketched and approved by Robotnik. Then he went to work right away."

"How do you know all of this?" Tails then asked. "It's as if you were there."

The Chief went around to his desk and opened up a drawer. He pulled out a manila folder with the Project Shadow symbol stamped on it.

"All the answers lie within this file," he spoke, stepping back over toward Tails. Once at his feet, he placed the folder carefully in his lap. "I believe you'll find it quite interesting. Everything here is narrated as if by the most ingenious of writers…but anyway."

He clicked the remote again.

"These are the primary sketches of how the subject was supposed to look."

They were pencil sketches, but were well-drawn and almost perfect. Under the head sketch was a name.

"What's that name there, Chief?" Amy asked, pointing to it. "Is that the name of the Project's subject?"

"That's correct, Amy," Chief Robotnik replied positively.

He clicked the remote again.

The next image showed a full-color sketch of the subject with a character description next to the photo—in Professor Gerald's handwriting.

"No offense or anything, Chief, but can you actually read that chicken scratch?" Sonic asked.

"As a matter of fact, I can. It says: 'Shadow the Hedgehog. Surname denotes _Atelerix albiventris_, binomial nomenclature for the African Pygmy hedgehog. Forename come from Old English word, _Sceaduwe, _a form of _sceadu, _which means "shade." Male. Height: 167.64 cm; Weight: 58.97 kg; Appearance: Black fur, red streaks on head quills, forearms, calves and upper corners of eyes, white furry tuft on chest, tan muzzle, and crimson irises.'"

Everyone's gazes had shifted to one another as the brief description of the hedgehog was given. Silver saw Amy shrugging a little. But Sonic made a pensive face. "So, this is about _that _guy…?" He flashed a frustrated fang.

Tails saw this and blinked at him curiously.

"Shadow has been deemed the most dangerous creature on Earth, my friends." Chief Robotnik looked serious. "And Rouge will be in charge of persuading him to join us, by any means necessary."

"But what if he doesn't want to, Chief?" Amy then spoke up, gesturing a little. "I mean, he has a mind of his own too, right?"

"The answer to that lies here, which leads us to the next slide…"

He clicked the remote control once again.

Various photographs of Shadow appeared on the screen. They showed Shadow performing a variety of rigorous exercises, showing him running, bench-pressing, doing chin-ups and balance beam acrobatics, and kickboxing. Results of the various tests were posted on to one corner of each picture.

"Top speed at 330 kph… Maximum strength threshold is 4.5t…! He's quick and graceful. And it's just plain obvious that Shadow is strong," Chief Robotnik added on. "Not only in the body…but also—"

He clicked to the next slide.

"—in the mind."

Shadow could be seen solving a complex problem on a blackboard-sized touch-screen module. It looked like some kind of a mathematical puzzle. The picture caught him sliding the multitudes of interactive panels around the screen, piecing them together and composing an algorithmic equation. From that angle, there were approximately thirty different panels constructing a line across the board, amidst the hundreds of others.

Amy blinked, her eyes sparkly with heart-throbbing wonder. 'Wow! Monstrously strong, wicked smart _and _devilishly handsome!'

"These were times when my grandfather had been happiest…until…"

He clicked to the next slide; everyone cringed in their places.

"The disaster hit: Everyone was murdered, including my grandfather's closest colleagues, the only friends he had. My grandfather himself was not harmed, or at least for the time being. After his arrest by the GUN, he was sentenced to death for all counts of conspiracy against the Japanese government, which would have ultimately affected the rest of the world. He was tortured first for some weeks, and because he did not confess, his recorded last words were 'Shadow, kill them all' before he was executed."

Everyone was silent.

Chief Robotnik sighed calmly. "But you are right, Amy. Shadow does have a mind of his own, and the only way to protect that mind is for him never to hear those words."

He clicked the remote once more.

The last image showed Shadow in cryogenic stasis within the deepest part of Kubohama Maximum-Security Prison. That explained the white haze Rouge had seen.

"This photograph was taken just moments after Shadow's imprisonment. Here, Shadow has been cryopreserved within this glass vessel. It's a shame that he ended up there for fifty years…but now, his 'lady-in-silken-raiment' has freed him." He smirked, hinting on Rouge.

Tails and Sonic looked at each other again. Tails chuckled; Sonic just slapped his hand against his forehead.

Both the projector and screen returned to their homes in the ceiling, and the shaded windows returned to their normal tint, allowing the moonlight to beam inside the office. Everyone's eyes adjusted to the incoming moonlight as Tails, Amy, and Silver stood from the sofa.

"So, that's the Major's new assignment?" Tails asked, looking over at Chief Robotnik as he stepped around from his seat. "To persuade Shadow to join us?"

"Yes," Robotnik nodded. "That is her last assignment for tonight, as well as all of yours."

"No problem, Chiefster," Sonic said coolly. "I'll let her know. I _am _the fastest one in the whole Division, after all!" He saluted playfully to his boss before speeding out the room. "See ya!"

Vector and Knuckles dodged him, and growled once he was gone.

The Chief snickered to himself. He sighed, "Good luck."

Tails and Amy blinked.

"Well, he seemed eager," Amy commented with a playful wink, sticking her tongue out cutely.

Tails nodded, smiling awkwardly. "Yeah…" Then, looking away, "Kinda strange for him, though…"

...=9_D=...

Rouge was sitting while Wave the Swallow operated on her back. The originally superficial damage had penetrated her spine and knocked some vertebrae off kilter, so Wave was repairing it for her.

"Keep your back straight, Major," Wave complained. "I can't fix it properly if you keep slouching like that."

Rouge obeyed, sighing roughly. "Are you almost finished, by the way?"

"Yeah. Just give me a couple more minutes…"

Sudden knocking came upon the door into the workshop, and Rouge and Wave shot their eyes over at the door.

Wave removed her goggles before yelling, "You can come in."

The door swished open and Sonic came jogging inside. He smirked.

"How did you get down here so fast?" Rouge wondered, with Wave continuing to work on Rouge's back.

Sonic nonchalantly replied, "Heh, I ran!" grinning.

Rouge blinked.

"That must have been a lot of stairs," Wave commented, applying a tiny screwdriver into Rouge's back.

"Hah, no problem!" He waved his hand coolly. He stopped jogging. "But anyway, I came down here to let you know about your last assignment for the night. Heh heh!" Sonic showed them a smug grin.

Rouge lifted a curious eyebrow.

Wave stopped what she was doing, having finished her work, and walked over to fetch some first aid supplies.

"Last assignment?" Rouge repeated questioningly. "What last assignment? I thought we were done for the day."

"We are, but you were down here getting repaired while the Chief was telling us about it. He told us to tell you that you need to persuade…uhh…what's-his-face to join our team. The Chief thinks he's got potential…but I don't know." Sonic crossed his arms.

Rouge gawked blankly at him. "You mean Shadow?"

"Oh, that's the creepy, silent type's name?" Sonic made a pouting face. "Of course _you'd _remember…"

Rouge kept her face blank, a drop of sweat appearing at her temple. Wave, with a first aid kit in hand, made the same expression. "Uh-huh…?" they hummed in unison.

"Anyways…he's training with the Chief and Knuckles in the shooting range. I think he's in for some 'You've-gotta-prove-your-worth' exercises. I can feel it in my bones!"

"What bones?" Wave asked sarcastically. She began wrapping Rouge's lower torso with gauze bandages.

Sonic bubbled one of his cheeks, groaning playfully.

"What worth is there for him to prove?" Rouge asked, gesturing accordingly. "Wasn't his display of power enough?"

Sonic blinked. "Meh. I dunno. All I know is that I need to be there too. Wanna come?" He stretched out a polite hand.

She looked down at it, then back at him. "Oh please…! I don't need _your _chivalry too, Sonic," Rouge insisted, standing up quickly. "Besides, I know you're gonna hit on me too again, in _some _ridiculous way…" she added, waltzing right by him.

"Hey!" Wave snapped, sharply losing grip on her tie. "I wasn't done, girl!"

But Rouge took over. "I can go myself." She finalized the knot, grabbed her bolero and headed out of the workshop.

Sonic watched her go, a little dumbfounded. 'Chivalry…?' He looked at Wave, who seemed to be steaming a little. "Ooh, that girl…!" he heard her say under her breath. As she walked off, he shook his head. He frowned a little and trailed after her.

"Just trying to be polite is all…" he muttered.

**Section One Complete.**

* * *

M.P. Lilith: My Hidden Weapons relaunch! Random relaunch...I know.

Essentially, the same preview chapter that's posted on dA. Duplicated and moved it here because editing is easier. If something's off, let me know. Otherwise, this is the 4th (?) relaunch of this fanfic. Sorry for no story-related A/N. Some of you probably know what this fic entails already. But get ready for changes. Anyway, enjoy! Next Section: TBA! o w o;


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